ABSTRACT
Studies carried out on language disorders in cerebral degenerative diseases constitute an important area of research in the history of neuropsychology. The language deficits shown by patients during the various phases of dementia are traditionally described by neurological and neuropsychological literature as following an almost standard pattern. The results as to the association between language deficits and other neuropsychological disorders are also relatively discordant. Focal damage to the inferior part of the left temporal lobe is a characteristic of herpes encephalitis and of degenerative forms with fluent language deficits. The sample of language used was very limited, as the patients were asked to write only one sentence on the topic they preferred. Studies on written language reflect the relative disagreement documented earlier for the spoken language. Phonological dysgraphia would appear to be associated with non-fluent, while surface dysgraphia is associated with fluent language disorders.
